All Charlie, all the time

I feel like the majority of my posts since the baby has been born, have been about the baby. So I thought I'd dedicate a post to Charlie...he's been so good and so fun and so delightful lately. I've been working alot so I haven't had a ton of time to enjoy him...but the time we do spend together is great! Last week, I took him to the Please Touch Museum...just the two of us! It was great.

I built a tower that was over my head and he loved knocking it down...

As always, his favorite part was shopping at the grocery store...

The veggies were a huge hit...

He had dinner with a stranger...very cute little girl who stayed briefly and then left. He then invited me to sit down for dinner...

Water play...the kids around him were splashing alot and he was not happy about that...so water play was short lived...fine by me!

There's a room where the 3 bears live...you know mama, papa and baby bear. Charlie set them up like this at the table so they could all eat together!

Charlie's vocabulary is ever expanding and his curiosity for things around him is palpable. He asks lots of questions, loves to make baby Aaron smile, and loves to read books. I'll scan a few pictures that he has colored recently to show how well he stays in the lines...he really concentrates and does an amazing job coloring! He likes to draw pictures of "monsters" and other people who now have arms legs and fingers. Sometimes there's even hair! He knows how to draw several letters, although they usually come out upside down...don't know what that means! At school, they wrote the words "HI MOM" on a paper and he copied it very well. I was gushing with pride!

Pictures only...that's all you really want anyway!

Fun pics...

Here's a picture from yesterday...it started as tummy time/exercise time and he got tired of it and laid like this for 20 minutes watching Fraggle Rock with Charlie. Charlie decided he needed a toy while he watched TV (don't we all!) so he gave him his beloved "Red" the firetruck (from cars)...it's by his left knee but kind of blends in!

The boys watching TV together...

We're making progress...Aaron will stay propped like this for a minute or so now...he won't push up to get in this position but he'll stay propped like this rather than immediately flopping his head down.

Look at his silly hair...it's so patchy on the sides and so long on top and in the back...I call it his jew-fro-hawk...

Finally some pictures!

Charlie and his make-shift tool belt

Making funny faces at Aaron

"silly monster face"

My new favorite picture of him!

Thoughts on life

I've been busy since I last posted. Mostly working. We are SLAMMED at work right now and there is alot of overtime to be had...so I am working it. Probably too much, but Alex is holding down things at home so I can work and sleep, work and sleep...This will allow us to build up something of a cushion to use while we are a single income again. We are working on some things on Alex's end, trying to see if he can qualify for unemployment again, thinking about applying for disability, etc...anything related to what happened with his former job, I've been asked to refrain from blogging about. Any questions asked about it or comments about it will have to be deleted until further notice. Thanks for understanding. I wish I could rant or vent about it all but it's best if I keep my mouth shut for now!

I am trying to keep things in perspective right now. As far as Aaron goes, I love him so much and I want him to be happy. I realize today, that he is happy. The past week or two or three, he is happier than he's ever been. I am sure i am totally jinxing myself right now, but he no longer has a "bad" time of the day...he eats, sleeps, plays a bit and smiles almost all the time. No more screaming, fussing...I haven't used the Baby Bjorn in forever. It's really great! So he is happy. Whatever all of this neurological workup shows or doesn't show, it doesn't matter. If he crawls a little later, walks later, whatever, it's okay...he's happy!

With Alex and his situation, we'll make it work. I firmly believe that things happen for a reason. They always do. I don't know what the reason is for all of this crap with his job and everything he's gone through with it and with our financial stresses...but it will work out somehow in the end. I can't see it yet, but I have faith that it will happen that way.

I was talking to a friend the other day, complaining that I really want things to just be settled. To know that we don't have any pressing plans that weekend, or to know that our bills will be paid no problem and we'll be able to have fun and relax and eat out, etc. I was telling her that the week Alex lost his job, I was thinking to myself (because it was a busy week), "I just need to get through till next week and it'll be easy for the rest of the summer"...then Alex was fired and I am working a ridiculous amount of nights in a row to keep us financial sound. So my friend reminded me that things are never settled. Even when things calm down, there's always something lurking around the corner, or things may still feel crazy even though compared to a week ago, they're not. I thought about this and realized how true that is.

I remember the month before my grandmother died was December and it was insane. I wasn't pregnant with Aaron yet, but was training for the marathon and was busy with life. January rolled around and at the end of a particularly stressful week I thought to myself..."once next week is here, it will be smooth sailing". I may have even posted that on the blog at one point that week. Two days later, Gram started having changes in her mental status and she died within a few days. It was an even busier week as I was back and forth spending time with her, working and Charlie was sick that week.

I can remember several examples of this where I looked into the near future...thinking about how great it would be to get to a certain day, where my responsibilities were less, and then all hell breaks loose and I am drowning in responsibility. That's life, that's part of being a grown-up. I wouldn't change being married, having my boys, my house, my dogs, my family if it meant I'd be less stressed. I need to remind myself of this more lately. Instead of looking to see when things will calm down, I need to take it day by day and enjoy the good parts of every day. I think, in a way,it's great that Alex and I are being tested like this already in our marriage. We work well together and we get through things with great collaboration. We've had alot of ups and downs in our 8 years together, and we've gotten through it all, usually with flying colors. That makes me feel good about us as a unit and I know that we'll all be stronger after all of this! Thanks for listening...I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Busy weekend, but lots of fun!

This was a busy week for us at the Cohen house. Besides the unpleasantries mentioned in the previous post, we had a friend of mine visit from Arizona. Candace and Josh have been on a cross-country treck with their son Henry and stopped by our great city to visit for a couple of days. It was wonderful to have them here and Henry is just the cutest little guy ever! His vocabulary is amazing! I also threw a baby shower on Saturday for our friend's Dave and Mike who adopted baby Abigail. That was alot of fun and everyone reallyenjoyed themselves. Then on Sunday we headed out to Downingtown to swim at my parents' and have dinner. We have been busy!Here's Aaron laughing at daddy...
Dave and Abigail
Henry and Charlie

Me and Aaron, Candace and Henry in front of the liberty bell

Candy, Aaron and Henry

Slepyhead milk face baby on tutu's shoulder

Charlie did so well at the pool on sunday. He loved getting dunked under and actually got the hang of holding his breath when he went under. He kept saying, "don't forget the breathe!" Then he actually jumped off the edge into Alex's arms. What a big boy! He also discovered that he could touch the bottom in the shallow end and insisted on walking back to the steps himself!

Aaron had his first dip in the pool and decided he'd rather stick to warm bathtubs!

chillin in the wagon

"sunning" himself

Aaron went to the cardiologist today (monday), as well as the neurologist. The cardiologist dd a thorough echocardiogram and really does not think that a vascular ring is anything to worry about. He thinks that his breathing and all of his other "issues" ar not related to anything cardiac. Hooray, one specialist to cross off our list of docs.

Then we went to neurology. The doctor was very nice and very thorough with Aaron. He agrees that he is hypotonic with motor delay. His reflexes are preserved so there does not seem to be a "neuromuscular" problem, just a muscular one. I found a great website that explains what the doc said very well. Basically there's a number of reasons for hypotonia...it may be something he will outgrow, it may not. We are slotted to have numerous bloodtests done to try and get some concrete answers, and also to see if there is a medicine or something that can be given to reverse the problem. There are so many possible reasons for hypotonia, and it may be that we never find the reason. But he'd like to try. We are going to opthamology to look for changes in his optic nerves that can give some clues as to what the neurologist should look for. I'm a little thrown back by all of this but I love Aaron madly and will do whatever i can to make it better for him.

Bad day in the Cohen house...

what a day thursday was...still is for me because I'm awake at work and won't sleep till Friday night...so Thursday is still going on for me! Hooray! Why was it such a bad day? Well, it started out with Aaron having an evaluation from early intervention. It's sort of a long story...and I didn't post anything about it until I knew if we were going to be needing the services or not...I wanted to wait and hear what the experts said.



It started a while ago...I noticed that Aaron was still a very floppy baby and needed lots of support when held. I started looking at pics of Charlie at the same age and realizing how little Aaron was doing in comparison. At Aaron's 4 month checkup, his pediatrician started asking me if he does this, no...does he do this, no...can he do this, no...that's kind of how our conversation went. So he did his exam and told me to take him to a neurologist because he was delayed and he was worried about his hypotonia (low muscle tone). I was upset...another Dr. appointment,a nother specialist, another referral to call in, another co-pay, etc. I made the neuro appointment (7/13/09) and mentioned all of this to Hallie's mom Abby. She suggested I call Child-link/Early intervention and get on the list for them to come and assess him. I didn't know I could do this, nor did I know that this service existed...but it does and the whole process was rather quick. So our formal evaluation was today, and the woman certainly feels that Aaron is delayed physically and that he is hypo tonic. She recommended that he receive PT services and the therapist should be calling us next week. So that started our day. Not a huge deal but I am upset about the whole thing. I want him to stop having doctor appointments, I am trying to cross things off my list of things to do, not add to it. But we'll do what he needs, and help him in any way we can so that he can play and develop appropriately for his age. Their goal is that he's no longer delayed at 2 years of age.

So then, we had a GI appointment. No big deal, just long and full of waiting. They changed his meds which makes me nervous...we have a good thing down now and I worry that changing what works will make it not work...but these are the GI "experts" so I am hoping they know what they are doing. The one med needs to be compounded so he won't get started on them till Saturday at the earliest.

So after several hours at CHOP, I picked up a very cranky Charlie from school and we headed home. I was getting the kids settled, trying to feed Aaron his cereal/fruit combo that he now loves and opens his mouth for...Charlie was freaking out, Aaron was screaming because I hadn't actually put any food in his mouth yet, and the phone rang. It was Alex...oh great, he gets to hear the chaos that is our life at 5pm every night. Our conversation went like this:

Me: "Hello"
Alex: "Hi, how are you?"
Me: "ok, just a little overwhelmed with both kids freaking out, I need to make dinner and get ready for work still, oh and both kids are currently screaming, did I mention that?"
Alex: "It's about to get worse"
Me: "oh yeah, why, are you going to be late and I have to go to work late?"
Alex: "they let me go"
Me: "what do you mean, who let you go....oh shit, you're kidding me, why? When? How? WHAT?!"...now comes the crying, the total freakout.....

So yeah, the evening began with news that Alex lost his job again.
If anyone reading this wants to send Alex an encouraging comment or email or facebook message, I'm sure he would appreciate it...also if anyone knows of anyone hiring in the city who doesn't mind that he's incredibly hard working and talented, but visually impaired...please pass us the information!